Historic Day

New York Yankees v New York Mets, July 8, 2000
(1:30 pm)

Shea Stadium, Section 23 Row R

A monumental day for baseball. For the 1st time in modern history 2 teams will play each other on the same day, in different stadiums. This event was brought about due to a rain out from a previous Interleague game played the month prior at Yankee Stadium.

The teams would play the regularly schedule game at Shea at 1pm and the make up at Yankee Stadium that evening.

And New York was in a frenzy. I wouldn't know. I was working in Raleigh, NC with no intention of going. Until I got a call that Thursday with the challenge for driving to Shea (only) in an attempt to scalp tickets. The idea was to head back to Jersey to watch the night cap in TV at a bar.

So I trek up 95 and hookup in South Jersey with a friend. We get the stadium incident free. There was so much media hype and warning from the police that this series was going to be closely monitored. We prepared with plastic cups to hide our beers for the tailgate.
We got there early anticipating a long search for reasonably price tickets. The goal wasn't "best" seats, just access to the inside.

The first group we meet when exiting the parked car were a bunch of guys sheepishly tailgating.
We approached them as asked what the scalping situation looked like. One guys pulled out a citation for $150 and said he already go busted for trying to sell 2 tickets. We told him we were looking for 2. He reluctantly handed his two extra tickets to us and asked if we wanted them.
Sure! No hunt. Instant tailgating. No worries. How much? ......Face value. Huh?
The guy was afraid of getting busted again so he handed them to us for face. I think that was $5.
I was barely able to find a five spot mixed in with all of the twenties and fifties I had in my pocket.

Granted, five bucks didn't get us in a luxury box.

The place really was whipped in a frenzy. The first place Yankees versus the second place Mets.
Dwight Gooden returning home to face Bobby Jones.

54,165 on hand. A beautiful sunny day. My first time at Shea after watching games on TV there since I was a kid. And I still had no desire to go over to Yankee Stadium that night to see the 2nd game of the double header.

Chuck Knoblauch got things started in the top half of the 1st with a single to right. Derek Jeter doubled next to score Knoblauch. Tino Martinez doubled to drive in Jeter for a quick 2-0 lead.
The Mets got one back in the fifth.

Martinez went long off Jones in the top of the sixth. Tino wasn't done adding another RBI single in the 8th driving in Jeter.

Mariano Duncan sat the sides down in the bottom of the 9th.

Game over. Great day for baseball. Time to get back to Jersey and catch the night game from the comforts of a bar. Until my buddy issues the challenge to go over to Yankee Stadium and scalp ticket for the night game. I had no desire. But he did remind me that we saved over hundred bucks (anticipated scalper's price). So money couldn't be used as an excuse.

I offered a compromise. If he could scalp two at Shea, I would go to the night game with him at The Stadium. He had to do all the work. I would sit and relax. If he couldn't buy two while we were at Shea, I was going home (I was feeling a little homoish that day).

Before I even settled for a long anticipated wait, he come running over and said he found a guy who was going to a wedding. We ran back to where he saw the guy, at the entrance to the train.
By the time we got back the guy bolted. But my buddy saw him with his girlfriend through the bars and called him over.

The story was he went to the original game but had a wedding to attend that night. He couldn't go. The tickets themselves had a previous date on them (I wasn't aware of the date so had no way of verifying if they were legit rain checks or not). My buddy assured me his ticket was from the correct game.

How much? Face....... Huh? Yeah, the guy was going to throw them away if he couldn't sell them and confessed he never tried to sell them. I was somewhat hesitant handing over my 8 dollars to a guy behind bars that I had no quick access to. Just kidding. Who cared if the guy stiffed us. It was only 8 bucks.

So he hands us the tickets and we were off.